Mexico weekly ledger., 1887-09-15
VETS IN LINE.
Ten Thousand Old Soldiers
On Pl0 March.
STEP TO MUSIC OF
A DOZEN BANDS.
Thousands of People Fed At
The Barbecue, Sixteen
Hundred at a Time.
HAPPY SPEECHES MADE BY
DISTINGUISHED PEOPLE
THE BIGGEST REUNION
EVER HELD IN THE
STATE.

After the procession, the thou
sands of visitors thronged Coons'
park and Allison's springs grounds.
All who could get within hearing dis
lance. jammed around the speakers
stand and listened to the elegantly
and highly interesting well
come of Judge s. NJ. Edwards, and
the response by Gen. ID. NJ. Frost.
Following is the address of welcome
by Judge Edwards:
GENTLEMEN There is no place in
great State in which you would
be at home to-day.
| wish / had language TO fifty express
the warm-hearted, whole-souled greet
ing which the citizens of this city .ex-
tend to you on this occasion.
/ can only say that | echo the one
voice of it's entire people when | bid
you welcome. 1t is an honor as well as
pleasure TO entertain such guests. The
brave, battle-scarred veterans of the
the great war, whether they were of the
one side or the other, are entitled to
our highest respect and admiration, for
they are the men who marked the per
iod and made it's history the most Won
of any age.
Other times have given to the world
names made famous by brave deeds,
but no period of the past-no people on
.arth-ever before furnished whole ar
of heroes like ours.
There never was such a wal as ours.
was a war between two sections
of the greatest people on earth-a peo-
pie who had never known defeat-a peo-
pie as invincibIe in arms as they are
chlvalrous in peace.
In war among such a people it was
inevitable hat the weaker side should
90 down. but they went down in a halo
so glorious that its brightness, its
spIendor, will be seen upon the. shores
of time until the stars go out in dark
ness.
1t has been called the war of the re-
bellion, but when all passion shall SUBJ
side, when our better judgment shall
return to US, the historian will write
and say that the same grand, honest,
patriotic motives actuated both sections.
The one to maintain those great funda-
mental rights, coeval with the govern
ment, and which We're believed to be
imperiled, and the other to maintain
the Union at all hazards; but whatever
may have been the III there was on
the part of the Southern people an ear
nestness, an honesty and devotion that
robs it of the odium of treason and
raised it to the dignity of j great war.
History furnishes no parallel to such
a conflict. The side was greatly in
farinr in nnpnharS If uyaS mithnuf the
the proper munitions of war; it's ports
biockaded; hemmed in on all sides;
without money and without credit; its
soldiers naked and hungry, and yet for
foul years these soldiers stood face to
face with the grandest army the world
ever saw. To say that such gallantry,
such heroism was ever equalled would
be to insult that great, that countless
arm y in blue that stood by the guns OF
the other side.
1t was great eve in it's fall. Its very
surrender was in keeping with whole.
1t was not as if a rebellion had been
crushed. There were no terms humill.
atlng and d~isgraceful. There was nc
disgrace, and the splendor of the van
pushed was only equalled by the mag
nanimlty of the victor, for upon the
field of Appomattox there was only the
military salute of n great American
general to another great American gen.
eral; that was all. This was the end
peace, dove-like, spread Its white wings
once more over n people. SO that to.
day there remains nothing of the war
nothing but the glorious memories o
its great deeds, a love for its heroic
dead and a patriotism intensified ant
purified with this baptism of blood. l
&c riyhf 10 ronar opd rpvlva Snch mnm
cries. 1t will make us Drawer men anc
better citizens to remember the sacri
fees, the devotion and the valor of tn
American soldier and it will make u
more considerable neighbors and bette
friends, North and South, to remembe
that the same gallant blood from
common ancestry courses the veins o
both sections.
The world will remember and d
homage to the names of the great lead
erS, for such as Lee, Grant
Stunewall Jackson and Sterling Pric
belong to all people and to all time
But there is another class that is en-
Titled to equal honor and to equa
praise-the private soldier-the name
less hero who sleeps, 1T may be, with
out a grave in the Wilderness, on tn
banks of the Rappanannock, upon tn
mountain heights of Antietam or upo
the bloody hills of Franklin. These ar
the men who bore the burden and hea
of the day; these are the men who stuo
where shell burst and shot fell thickest
these are the men who checked tn
route Or made the victory glorious
these are the men who imnortalize
the battIefields of Wilson Greek, c
Shiloh, of Gettysburg and Manassas an
| ftnyr rlnrtnY,, .laalE rn xHaa-i ,--,
the age as by the finger of Jehovah AN
will fade only when the race itself shal
fade into the Infinite.
But there is another and a grande
side than this-the side of reconcills
} ton and peace. When Gen. Lee SUI
rendered the great cause at Appomat
toy the Southern soldiers returned t
their homes-those homes among tn
cotton fields, among the orange grove
and magnolia shades of their beautift
South-to find them swept as with tn
bosom of destruction. In place of tn
ease and elegance, the affiuence of 9th
er days, they fad want, starvation an
ruin, widowhood and orphanage, a
around them. / care not what ma
have been the conduct of the Souther
soldier upon the bloodiest field of ba
tie, it was more than equalled by tt
tCStkudtlou anu courage VIII NulC
they looked the future in the face. An
yet even from such a scene of desola
ton and ruin, forgetting and forgIvin
all the past, they stretch the hand
fraternal greeting to the other side, an
with a fraukness and a manliness 70.
even to be praised and admired, thu
hand was clasped by the other side.
Is beautiful; 1t Is grand. So they met
and mingle as friends and brother
not only In the stern affairs of men; M
only In the busy marts of trade, bl
eve upon h very scenes of forms
conflicts, there they meet and over ii
graves OF dead comrades they plede
anew their friendship. Who woul
disturb such unions? Who would M
such a peace and reconciliation? N,
the brave man North or south: not III
gallant soldier from either army. The
are the political assassins who won
murder q nations peace for pa
tisan ends. Ghoul-llke they gor,
and fatten upon the loathson
remains of the dead section
hate. Let their names be anathama ma
anatha.
Divided we. may have been, even
the shedding of blood upon great que
tions of State, but wen then we we
one people as We are one people to-da
One people from the lakes to the Gu
from ocean to ocean; yes, wherever Il
flag floats there is the Union, and wi
such a citizen soldiery We shall new
lessen in extent or lose in honor.
d, The response of General Eros
though brief, raj highly appreciate
!, The General mentioned as q coin,